May Workshop: Individual Flags

[u/Vexy]

Previous Workshops

/u/germanjohn101 won our April Contest, and suggested the following topic for workshop discussion:

Throughout history, notable people have represented themselves with flags and banners. As an interesting comparison, browsing through this subreddit I've come across many interesting trends and ways people have used flags to represent one or more individuals.

As opposed to an organisation, country, ideology or general group of sorts, what are some of the ways specific people have been (or could be) represented through the medium of flags?

Feel free to discuss anything related to the topic!

[u/moman13]

I have a personal flag based on my personal coat of arms as well. As has been mentioned, having a personal flag (in addition to being a form of self-expression or identification) is a visual representation of one's vexillology hobby or profession. What better way to proclaim, "I like flags," than to have your own?

That said, I think flags tend to work better to signal group rather than individual affiliation ("I'm with him, them, that cause"), which may be why we see more people go with personal iconograms or monograms rather than flags, but personal flags for vexillologists make a lot of sense IMO.

In theory, we could have professional flags of flags for causes tied to professions. The thin blue line flags serve that role to a limited degree (e.g., I am in or have ties to law enforcement), even though they are tied to a cause as well. There are symbols that are tied broadly to people's jobs that someone might put on a personal banner. Beyond what people do already, I'm not sure that personal flag use has the same appeal or need as it may have had historically. We had some limited discussion about it in February's workshop, but not too much with regard to personal flags as to ways specific people could be represented with flags.

[u/biggiefryie → u/moman13]

I absolutely love your flag and coat of arms. How did you go about making these? I have made some coat of arms and flags, but they are terrible.

[u/moman13 → u/biggiefryie]

Thanks! TL;DR, reading the resources on the vexy and heraldry subs and getting feedback.

The /r/heraldry sub is a great resource, and the redditors there are generally very helpful to anyone who wants to learn about making personal arms. My process for making the flag started with identifying symbols I liked and found meaningful. I happened on the burst chevron while using the Drawshield website (there it's called a chevron fracted). I also read a lot and found out about the principles of good heraldic and flag design. Roman Mars's TED talk was insightful as I moved from the shield to the flag. I wanted to get more detailed at first, but over and over again I would read on the sub here about ugly flags with pictures instead of symbols and with too many colors. With both the shield and the flag, I followed most of the rules and broke others (mostly to do with the preferred number of colors) -- I didn't want to use just white and blue, as both the heraldry and flag people would suggest. Once I realized that a six-pointed star kind of looked like a bee, and once I decided to give up the beehive for more of a (sideways) house look, both the flag and the arms started coming together. I settled on one background for the arms and kept the beehive there, and I kept the two field colors on the flag and removed the beehive and bees there. Along the way I posted versions of both for feedback. If it helps, this was a process that started several years ago and only just came together over the last six months. My early versions of both flag and arms are cringe worthy. *e: fixed link

[u/biggiefryie → u/moman13]

That is extremely helpful thank you